Eat shit and die
That is all
Mattel is ran by an isntreali too
Oh okay so now they normalize visually discriminating against auties bc some of us wear noise canceling headphones. Maybe their next run she can have a blue trick or treat bucket?
I just imagine the creative board sitting around a table going like ‘We need an autism barbie, how is she going to look’ - ‘Uh, idk you can’t really see if someone has autism’ - ‘Don’t they wear like, earphones or something (like 99% of people in public transport nowadays)?’ - ‘Yeah that’s it!’
Literally any barbie can have autism. I have autism and whenever I tell people they are like ‘but I could never tell!’ No, how could you? What do you expect to see?
its way worse than i thought wtf
The autistic Barbie doll features and accessories include:
Body: The autistic Barbie doll features elbow and wrist articulation, enabling stimming, hand flapping, and other hand gestures that some members of the autistic community use to process sensory information or express excitement. Eye Gaze: The doll is designed with an eye gaze shifted slightly to the side, which reflects how some members of the autistic community may avoid direct eye contact. Accessories: Each doll comes with a pink finger clip fidget spinner, noise-cancelling headphones and a tablet. Fidget Spinner: The doll holds a pink finger clip fidget spinner that actually spins, offering a sensory outlet that can help reduce stress and improve focus. Headphones: Pink noise-cancelling headphones rest on top of the doll’s head as a helpful and fashionable accessory that reduces sensory overload by blocking out background noise. Tablet: A pink tablet showing symbol-based Augmentative and Alternative Communication apps (AAC) on its screen serves as a tool to help with everyday communication.
the bourgeois’ inability to think past the commodities someone buys is really weird. Like they define people by what commodities someone needs, that’s how they group people. After all what is an identity other than the set of stuff one owns?
Finally an actual critique
I kinda feel called out for the headphones.
I didn’t realize that’s an autistic thing, I just prefer to not be distracted when I’m listening to something, and earphones feel weird.
Don’t worry, I use headphones for public transportation/listening to things at work and I’m not autistic. Plenty of people use them for comfort and to reduce noise.
I don’t know what the autistic barbie is but I can guess that it’s something extremely offensive.
As an autistic person the only problem I can see is that it infantilizes us by portraying us with headphones, a fidget spinner, and a method of alternative communication using assistive technology. Considering that ASD is increasingly believed to be on a spectrum with ADHD, there are naturally accessories that control stimulation being presented to the ASD individual. Considering this is designed for children I can excuse the subtle infantilization as these can be argued to be portrayals of regulation strategies that autistic children can learn about and may realize work for them as well as building acceptance/tolerance of individuals who use these coping strategies.
TL;DR I struggle to find any reason to spend an iota of brainpower on this “issue” – Capitalism commoditizes us in shallow caricatures, what’s new?
Just why. Why is that a thing?
Capitalism will commodify everything.
sorry, i’m not updated, i thought you were referring to a weird doll and “autistic barbie” was a moniker, but looking at the comments, it seems that mattel made an actual autistic barbie for “inclusivity”?
i thought american companies were mask off on fascism and didn’t want any of that “DEI” stuff…what makes this barbie “autistic” btw?
what’s inherently wrong with the autistic barbie?
As an autistic dude, fuck if I know man I’ve been racking my brain over this. Like there is obviously the commoditization of our exceptionality and some stereotypical regulation strategies they employ being reduced to commodities but like, that’s just capitalism. Are we really mad at “autistic barbie” or just capitalism making autistic barbie?
i feel like saying that autistic barbie is stereotypical is inaccurate (honestly the fidget spinner is the only stereotypical part about this doll to me). many autistic people use headphones, AAC devices, and fidgets. autistic barbie was made to represent a huge part of the autistic community. i get being mad at capitalism making autistic barbie but you would also have to be mad at capitalism making barbies representing other disabilities. it doesn’t make sense to me to be mad about the disability representation certain products themselves. it makes more sense to be mad at the capitalist system that makes these very disabilities commodities.
I didnt say she was stereotypical, I said some of her regulation strategies were; as evidenced by the fact that you immediately understood it to be the fidget spinner.
They could always put a big scarlet “A” on her clothing line…oh, wait, that idea may have already been used.
Removed by mod
